Dan Slott took part in today's "Next Big Thing" conference call with MARVEL to talk about "Ends of the Earth". Teased as the beginning of the road to Amazing Spider-Man #700, it will take place between issues #682 and #687. The six part arc will feature the work of artist Stefano Caselli for four issues and an as of yet unrevealed guest artist for two instalments focusing on "major players" in the story. Slott revealed that this is Doc Ock's final plan for world domination as his death creeps ever closer and will see Spider-Man operating on a GLOBAL level.
The seeds for this storyline have been planted throughout the Marvel Universe since Amazing Spider-Man #600 the writer said. He added: "We've seen Doc Ock and the Sinister Six slowly building and percolating this master plan. On the way it's stretched out into the Marvel Universe proper. We've seen Doc Ock totally smack down Iron Man. He totally wiped the floor with Hank Pym's team in 'Avengers Academy.' Over in 'Spider-Man' during an FF team up, Doc Ock pwned Reed Richards! He took over the Baxter Building and stole all kinds of stuff. Doc Ock's been taking out the biggest brains on his stomp to global domination."
"The Sinister Six you start out with in 'Ends of the Earth' will not be the Sinister Six you're left with by the end," he went on to reveal. The current roster is made up of Doctor Octopus, Chameleon, Rhino, Mysterio, Electro and the Sandman. The latter will in particular be showing off his powers in a very BIG way, and Spidey himself will also have a chance to show off some new tech. "We're going to see some pretty cool new Spider-tech," he said. "Spidey has known the Sinister Six are a-coming. Spider-Man has had all this time to prep and bring specific tech to all the members of the Sinister Six. Spider-Man has designed a new suit and this is a suit specifically designed to go to war with the Sinister Six."
The Avengers will play a part in "Ends of the Earth" but Spider-Man supporting characters such as Black Cat, Venom and Scarlet Spider will more than likely not. There will also be no tie-in issues such as those recently seen for "Spider-Island". "I've never done a Spider-Man story on this scope before,""I think a lot of the stuff I do is on character, but this one I think the focus is a lot more on action and adventure. It's so big and the fallout from it is going to be huge. It's going to be neat at the end of the day when this is over where all the pieces are on the table. They're going to be in a lot of interesting spots."
As for how the book will tie in to the upcoming movie adaptation starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, Slott promised an epic battle between Spider-Man and the Lizard next year but promised no resurrection of Gwen Stacy. For even more details on "Ends of the Earth" click on the link below.
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